TOPIC: Nik Software

I am considering buying the full collection of Nik Software which includes Colour Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, HDR Efex Pro, Dfine, Viveza and Sharpener Pro. The problem is that I am unsure of whether I'll use it enough to make it a justified purchase. I intend using it along with continuing to use Photoshop.

I think it's pretty good value now that Nik Software were bought by Google. At $149, that's about the same price that you would pay for Silver Efex Pro in the past. Has anyone here ever tried Nik Software and if so what did you think? Should I take the plunge?

Its a nice piece of software, i've used it, you may want to look into Topaz Labs Bundle..onone eight is coming out soon. I'm happy with topaz bundle. The bundle comes with black and white effects, simplify, denoise, sharpen, lens effect, mask and adjust which lets you do 1 image HDR. I would suggest alteast taking a look at topaz.

Its a nice piece of software, i've used it, you may want to look into Topaz Labs Bundle..onone eight is coming out soon. I'm happy with topaz bundle. The bundle comes with black and white effects, simplify, denoise, sharpen, lens effect, mask and adjust which lets you do 1 image HDR. I would suggest alteast taking a look at topaz.

Thanks Jerry.

I did take a look and I'm pretty impressed. My only problem is that the entire collection of Topaz is quite a bit more expensive than Nik Software.

Brent Ross wrote:

aren't most of these features in ACR?

Not necessarily Brent. Whilst it is true that some of the stuff is indeed included in Camera Raw, the difference is that something like Silver Efex Pro goes much more in depth; the same is true of Colour Efex Pro.

And you can't create HDR photos in ACR at all. You can use Photoshop's HDR Pro thing but that has produced absolutely hideous results anytime that I have used it. The only other option for HDR that I can think of is Photomatix.

Apparently the noise reduction and sharpening of Nik software is superior to ACR and PS also, although I'm not too fussed about that as I would really be buying it for Silver Efex Pro, HDR Efex Pro and Colour Efex Pro so these are just delightful bonuses, if anything.

If it is like you said it is, so the Nik software is cleaner, better in noise and colorperformance, it will be a serious option to switch to that for me.

I did not figure it out yet, but is there a possibility to test the software? In a sort of trail version?

Yes Roy, if you go to Nik Software's website and look in the top right corner, you will see a "Try now" button, which will let you try Nik Software for 15 days.

Nik software mainly works as a pulg-in for PS and any reviews I've read of it have been positive. I saw a review recently where the noise reduction and sharpening of Nik Software was compared with the same tools in PS and the Nik tools were better in this review. I'll try and find the review for you now, if I can.

Also, now that I look, Nik has just added a new package to their entire collection, Analog Efex Pro!

I probably have to much software, but I have messed with Nik Define, it probably the best noise reduction software I've seen thus far. I have one photo I always wanted to get printed just for home, the noise is pretty bad, low light, higher ISO from a point and shoot. Define did an excellent job.